The present invention relates to workstations generally and more specifically to a two sided workstation that includes different level work surfaces to accommodate both sitting and standing workstation users.
A workstation usually includes a support structure, at least one horizontal work surface supported by the support structure and one or more computers including processors, display screens and data entry devices such as keyboards, a mouse, etc. Some workstations are used in many different ways by several different users at different times and, in some cases, simultaneously. For instance, in the case of a nurse station located in a medical facility, workstations have been routinely used for many different purposes. For example, some medical facilities operate twenty-four hours a day and seven days a week and are used by three or more shifts of nurses and doctors during the course of a typical day. In these cases, a station may simultaneously generally serve the needs of several nurses and doctors in a facility as well as serve as a reception station for patients and/or visitors arriving at an area of the facility.
In the past, nurses and administrators using a station have often been assigned different general tasks. For instance, some administrative nurses have been primarily responsible for entering data into databases using a computer, maintaining a schedule of resource use within an associated area of a facility, greeting patients within an area of a facility etc., while other patient attending nurses have been primarily responsible for tending to patients within an associated area of the facility.
In the past, patient attending nurses have typically used paper reporting tools for tracking/recording patient care activities while administrative nurses have routinely used computers to perform their tasks (e.g., data entry including entering data recorded by the patient attending nurses, scheduling, etc.). In these cases, patient attending nurses typically have only stopped at a nurse station for short periods to obtain information required to complete their duties associated with tending to patients and providing information to the administrative nurses while administrative nurses have generally spent a relatively greater portion of their time at the nurse station to complete their assigned tasks.
To support both administrative and patient attending nurses as well as serve as a reception area for patients/visitors, nurse stations have usually included a relatively large work surface at a height suitable for use by a sitting nurse and a relatively small horizontal surface at a height suitable for use by a standing nurse or a patient/visitor. Here, the station typically included one or more computers with displays located for use by administrative nurses and the smaller, standing height surface was generally for use by the patient attending nurses. Because the patient attending nurses and patients/visitors performed only few tasks at the station, the smaller standing height surface was always considered adequate to meet their periodic and minimal needs. Because some nurses where tasked with stationary tasks and others with ambulatory tasks, the stations often included complete surrounding structure to, in effect, close off the space used by the administrative nurses and operate as a barrier to easy access. The surrounding configuration was also seen as advantageous as it restricted access by patients or other facility visitors to locations where sensitive patient information was accessible/viewable (e.g., via a display).
In these cases, the side of the station on which patients/visitors approached was usually finished in a particularly aesthetically appealing manner while the side on which the administrators were seated had a design dictated more by function than form. Computer housings, network routers and other electronic equipment was usually stored under the large sitting height work surface in a location accessible from adjacent the large work surface but hidden from view on the other side of the station (i.e., hidden from the side from which a patient would typically approach the station).
Today, while there are still nurses that are assigned to different tasks within medical facilities, the lines between the duties performed by nurses of different types are not as bright as they once were. For instance, in the case of a patient attending nurse, often the nurse will record care information using an electronic palm type computing device and will transfer the recorded information corresponding to several patients (e.g., the patients associated with one round made by the nurse) to a persistent patient database linked to a facility computer network for permanent storage. In these cases, data transfer is usually performed at a nurse station where the nurse has the ability to review and modify the recorded data via a relatively large display screen (e.g., a desk top computer display as opposed to a smaller palm type display) prior to final storage in the persistent database.
As another instance, patient attending nurses in many facilities now also use computers based at nurse stations for other purposes such as obtaining detailed information about patients, additional information about drugs and/or treatments, checking or modifying schedules, entering narrative information concerning patients, etc.
While the tasks performed by different types of nurses have changed, unfortunately, nurse station configurations for supporting the different tasks have not changed very much. To this end, when a patient attending nurse has to access a computer to access information or enter information, in order to access the computer, the nurse has to physically enter the workstation structure that separates the station space from the surrounding common or “public” area. While movement into the surrounding station structure may not seem too burdensome at first blush, in reality, a patient attending nurse may have to access a computer at the station twenty or more times during an eight hour shift and in some cases for only a very short period (e.g., 20 seconds), and movement into and out of the station space can be a nuisance.
One solution is to open up the station space so that the large sitting height work surface can be approached from lateral sides in addition to along a front edge. In this case, a patient attending nurse can move into a position adjacent the sitting height work surface to access a computer without having to move through a circuitous path through an entry space into the station surrounding structure.
While existing “open” nurse stations are advantageous in some applications, such stations still have several shortcomings. First, while the sitting height work surface is approachable from multiple sides by a nurse, the surface is also approachable from the same sides by any patient or facility visitor in the general area and all of the clutter associated with computer equipment located under the work surface is observable.
Second, while an open nurse station allows a generally ambulatory nurse to move into a seated position adjacent a display and computer input devices, even the action of assuming a seated position is a nuisance in cases where a nurse has to access a computer for multiple short durations (e.g., 20 seconds) during a typical shift. Here, the simple task of assuming a seated position as opposed to maintaining a standing position during short computer access periods is time consuming and burdensome.
Third, where an ambulatory nurse requires a work surface for a short period, the small standing height surfaces provided by known nurse stations are typically too small for a nurse's needs. This is particularly true in cases where a nurse still records services via paper mounted to clip boards where, in many cases, the clipboards themselves are larger than a depth dimension of the standing height surface or where a nurse uses a laptop computer and attempts to support the laptop on top of the work surface.